HS Football 2019: Week 7
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There are times when wins, losses and other statistical information takes a back seat and our “SportsTalk” program addresses more than who are the top teams, who’s playing well and what are the most important games to watch this weekend.
On this Thursday’s program, we have such a case.
Easton Middle School Head Football Coach Jeff Zimmerman recently found out that he is in desperate need of a kidney transplant. The issue occurred with no warning whatsoever, and, in his current condition, his kidneys are functioning below 20% efficiently, which could cause a tragic outcome.
Jeff, his wife Ali, Easton Head Football Coach Jeff Braido and select members of the Rovers team will be in our studio this week to talk about his struggles and make a pitch for a donor to come through during this critical time…these actions may literally save his life.
We invite you to tune in to hear more about Jeff and Ali’s plight and ask that everyone spreads the word so that we can have a happy conclusion to this saga. If you know of anyone who might be able to help, reach out to the Easton School District or contact me at our RCN studio (610-443-2841 or chris.michael@rcn.net ) and I will get you in contact with Coach Zimmerman.
Now, for this week’s high school football poll for District XI teams…
“Big” Schools Poll
1) Easton
2) Nazareth
3) Freedom
4) Parkland
5) Emmaus
Other schools receiving multiple votes: Southern Lehigh
“Small” Schools Poll
4) Northwestern
Other schools receiving multiple votes: Salisbury, Notre Dame
For the largest school districts within the District XI/RCN-TV footprint, they qualify as the “big schools” in our pigskin poll. These schools consist of Parkland, Liberty, Allen, Easton, Emmaus, Liberty, Dieruff, Freedom, Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley, Northampton, Nazareth, Whitehall, Southern Lehigh, East Stroudsburg-South, and Pocono Mountain East & West.
“Small schools” for our poll consist of schools from Bangor, Saucon Valley, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Wilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua.
Here are the “rules” for our voters:
Each pollster identifies their top five teams among the “big schools” and the top four squads for the “smaller” group—the top school gets five (or four for the small schools) points, the second team gets four (or three) points and so on, with an average score determining the order of teams in both of the polls.
Check back each week here at “The Shop” to see if your favorite teams make our list!
Now, here are our RCN football experts (along with myself) weighing in on four of the most competitive high school games this weekend…
| The “PICK 4” | Freedom @ Easton *on RCN-TV |
Northampton@ Stroudsburg |
Northern Lehigh@ Salisbury |
Northwestern@ Southern Lehigh |
| Gary Laubach | Freedom | Northampton | Northern Lehigh | Southern Lehigh |
| Tony Cocca | Freedom | Northampton | Salisbury | Southern Lehigh |
| Keith Groller | Freedom | Northampton | Salisbury | Southern Lehigh |
| John Leone | Easton | Northampton | Salisbury | Southern Lehigh |
| Chris Michael | Freedom | Northampton | Salisbury | Southern Lehigh |
Keep following along each week here at “The Shop” for our predictions ahead of the weekend’s high school action and tune-in to our “RCN SportsTalk” television show for the latest “standings” to see which of our local football personalities are most correctly predicting the high school games this fall.
Congratulations to you, our RCN-TV website readers! All voters correctly predicted both Parkland and Penn would be victorious in their games broadcast on RCN last week. Be sure to try to keep the streak alive by checking out the “fan voting” section and make your pick for this Friday’s high school action.
